World's favourite Maritime Culture Magazine |
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| New section, yacht designers |
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A tribute to Olin Stephens, who died on Sept. 13, 2008
Olin James Stephens II (April 13, 1908 – September 13, 2008) has been described as the best-known and most successful yacht designer of the 20th century. Stephens was born in New York, but spent his summers with his brother Rod(erick) learning to sail on the New England coast. He also attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a term. His name is well known in connection with the America's Cup, as he assisted W. Starling Burgess on the J-Boats of the late 1930s, including Ranger, which won the America's Cup in 1937, defeating Great Britain's Endeavor II in four races. |
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| Exploration |
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The quest for the Northwest passage
Between the end of the 15th century and the 20th century, colonial powers from Eurasia dispatched explorers in an attempt to discover a commercial sea route north and west around North America. The Northwest Passage represented a new route to the established trading nations of Asia. In 1493 to defuse trade disputes Pope Alexander VI split the discovered world in two between Spain and Portugal; thus France, the Netherlands and England were left without a sea route to Asia, either via Africa or South America.[7] The British called the hypothetical route the Northwest Passage. |
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| Men at Sea |
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'Hands (Men) wanted for long voyage at Sea. No pay, no prospects, not much pleasure'. Visit Harold William Tilman website. Buy his 'The Eight Sailing and Mountaneering Books' .
‘The Sea’s most powerful spell is romance, that romance which, in the course of time, has gathered round the ships and the men who sailed upon it –the strange coasts and their discoveries, the storms and the hardships, the fighting and the trading, and all the strange things that happened and still do happen to those who venture upon it’. Harold William Tilman, 1958
A sailor... ‘ventures under sail upon strange coasts, seeking those first experiences, and trying to feel as felt the earlier men in happier times, to see the world as they saw it’ (Hilaire Belloc). |
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| Books and Music |
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A boat without books aboard looks like a perfect cellar without the wine. Books provide a perfect medicine for ignorance, can teach most of what one needs to know about sailing, can cure allergies for the slow passing of time during crossings, can alleviate the weight of exceedingly cumbersome discomforts and fellow crews.
So the cases are two: either you choose a boat with books aplenty aboard, or you bring your own. If you need some advice, we are constantly updating a comprehensive list for books about sailing and books that are particularly effective in keeping the morale high. Trust us, they are thoroughly tested. |
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| Art at Sea |
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| Images, pictures, books & music, exhibitions and links for the Art lovers |
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| Maritime wisdom & Quotes |
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"Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble at sea than all other things put together".
-Thomas Fleming Day
"There is nothing so distressing as running ashore, unless there is also
doubt as to which continent the shore belongs." STS Lecky |
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| Places |
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Every destination you can choose on the globe has its own peculiarities. None is like another. History does not seem to change too much when we consider that most modern vessels come from Europe. Shipyards and sailors seem to fan out from the Mediterranean or the Channel. Even Americans feel this fatal attraction and end up imprisoned by the fascination of the witches conquering the heart of sailors since time immemorial. The Med is the cradle of art, the big bang of history and certainly the heart of cuisine. Following most yachtsmen route, our itineraries cross the Atlantic and stop overin the Caribean. Still a world of ex-pats, be them from Africa, France or England, this crown of small and big islands keeps changing its characteristics on land, but preserve the same eternal blue soul once the white beach is left behind. |
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| Tales |
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A large crowd gathered on the second day of January of the new Millennium, around the tiny harbour of Hanga Piko, in Easter Island, to cheer the departure of the six brave participants of the first backgammon championship to take place in the vast Southern Pacific Ocean. In the following three weeks a long series of games would have raised one player, just one, to a throne reigning over the greatest surface of Planet Earth, even wider than Russia. This is not a responsibility to be taken lightly, and indeed all the entrants felt the great weight of the endeavour, and showed the serious countenance of the great men leaving towards a great enterprise... |
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Tales |
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